Nice small microphone, Zoom H1 alternatives ?

B

baaz

Member
Hello !

I'm looking to buy a microphone to record both interviews and ambiant sound.
I'm looking for something small and not tooooo expensive, and if possible versatile : that I could mount on my camera for run and gun documentary style with reasonable ambiance and voice capture, and also in which I could plug a Lavalier or boom for having a very good sound in setup interviews.
Note that I already used the Zoom H4N several times, the sound quality is really good but it's bulky, expensive and I never need 4 channels. I also used things like the Rode Videomic but never was impressed by the sound, and it's very limited for mono voice only).

I was then lurking on something like the Zoom H1 that could seemingly suit my needs but was looking for some feedback.
Is the sound almost as good as the H4N ?
Are there some nice alternatives ? Was also looking on the Sony ICD SX712 which seems nice, couldn't find audio comparisons versus the H1. Sony have a lot of similar products, it gets you lost !

So if any of you have some advice and feedback on products like these, I'd be glad to heat them :)

Thank you in advance !
 
The build quality on the H1 leaves a lot to be desired, but I think it's one of the best sounding recorders for its price and size. I like the sound of the mics much more than those built into the tascam portable recorders. More natural high end.

Handling noise will be a problem if you mount it on your cam, even with a shockmount, although it will improve with the shockmount.
 
For mono, I like the Rode VideoMicro.

For stereo, the Zoom H1 is good by itself, but not great on a camera: it's too big, hard to mount, and too prone to handling noise. I don't know of a good and small on-camera stereo mic.

The Zoom H1 is great paired with a high sensitivity lavalier such as the Rode Lavalier or the Rode PinMic. It has better audio quality than the Zoom H4n.
 
I have both the H1 and the H4n. I think the sound is better on the H4n but the difference is not night-and-day, the H1 does sound good. What's completely different is build quality: the H1 would last me a month if I used it daily. When shooting with an external mic one of the channels has developed a horrible noise. I had the power botton fall off to the floor twice. I think it's six years old or so, but I've used it less than 20 times in total.

The H4n has had around the same amount of use in those same years, and I would still consider it "as new".
 
Thank you for your replies !

The H1 seems to have a nice sound but pretty bad global comfort of using.
I think I will look deeper about the Sony IDC SX712 or SX2000 though a bit more expensive.
 
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